The present disclosure generally relates to food products. More specifically, the present disclosure relates to creamers for food products such as coffee and tea.
Creamers are widely used as whitening agents with hot and cold beverages, e.g., coffee, cocoa, tea, etc. They are commonly used in place of milk and/or dairy cream. Creamers may come in a variety of different flavors and provide a whitening effect, mouthfeel, body, and a smoother texture.
Creamers can be in liquid or powder forms. One disadvantage of powder forms is that they do not generally provide an impression of traditional dairy creamers. Another disadvantage of using powder creamers may include difficulties in dissolution when added to coffee, and also the possibility of having a non-homogeneous beverage.
More and more consumers are concerned by the naturalness of food products. Regular coffee creamers contain additives to prevent a product defect called “flocculation”; occurring upon reconstitution of creamer-coffee-mixes in hot water; respectively upon reconstitution of the creamer alone in hot coffee. Flocculation describes the process of milk protein destabilization (feathering, precipitation) which can be induced by two main mechanisms: (i) Acidity induced flocculation and (2) Heat and hard water induced flocculation. Heating of milk proteins leads to a change of the natural state of whey proteins. If the temperature is >70° C., the denaturation is irreversible; and denatured whey proteins interact to form large aggregates, visible as “feathering”/“flocculation” and sedimentation in the final beverage. Whey proteins are also sensitive to free Mg2+ and Ca2+ in water. High concentrations of these free ions (“hard water”) can lead to a similar denaturation process as described above as they are promoting aggregation by reducing repulsive charge at the surface of proteins. Regular coffee creamer contains also very often emulsifier added to prevent a destabilization of the emulsion. These additives are so called emulsifiers, buffer, and stabilizing salts, are mostly labelled as INS- or E-number on the ingredients list, which has a negative impact on the consumer perception and acceptance of those products (chemical/artificial connotation).
Thus, there is a demand for commercially available more natural creamers (free from additives). However as mentioned above, usually non-dairy powdered coffee creamers contain stabilizers such as synthetic emulsifiers, buffer and stabilizing salts and may also contain whitening agents that are all not perceived as natural by the consumer. These artificially perceived food ingredients, however, are typically needed to guarantee the physical stability of the coffee creamer over the shelf life of the product and after pouring into coffee in order to achieve their desired whitening effect in the coffee. In the absence of these ingredients, the coffee creamers are much less stable over time and show less whitening and adverse sensorial effects. Currently, “pseudo natural creamers” exist, which are dairy or non-dairy based but still contain either emulsifiers or buffer salts, chelators such as dipotassium phosphate, sodium citrate and sometime artificial and natural flavor combinations. Although these pseudo natural creamers are touted as being natural, they usually still contain additives.
Half and half (half liquid cream—half liquid milk) can be considered as a natural dairy creamer but it does not sweeten or flavor the coffee and it is only available in liquid form. Therefore, there is a need for naturally perceived powdered creamers having long-term stability along with excellent whitening and sensorial properties without E-numbers.